Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11
A SECOND YEAR AT THE HOME¹

     After the Glascotts² had gone and the work was taken out of my hands, I went home to Charles Street. I was not feeling at all well, and had constant pain in my back. But when Mrs. Cartwright³ asked me to teach Mildred, her little girl of seven, I was glad to do so, not only because I was very much attached to Cousin Harriet, but because I was anxious to earn something. I went about twelve o'clock had lunch and remained until 5.30 p.m. So Mrs. Cartwright felt quite happy in going out visiting or otherwise disposing of her time. It was easy work. Mildred was very bright and no trouble to teach. Lessons only lasted an hour and then I either took her out or amused her in some way at home. Shortly after I began, we invited two more little cousins, Daisy and Wilfred Boulton⁴, twins of seven, to join the lessons and walks. But the long walk from Charles Street to Beverley was quite too much for me, and cars were a great expense, there being no transfers, so it cost me ten cents each way, which would soon eaten up my slender salary of $6.00 a month. I remember kind Mr. Cartwright⁵ giving me $1.00 worth of tickets once; he was always so good in little ways. After trying for two or three weeks, Mrs. Frank Cayley⁶ insisted on my coming to her for a visit. I was there three weeks and then Mrs. Cayley⁷ said I must come back to them again. I can never forget how she took me in her arms and said: "Do not leave me; they are all going away," but that was later on in the winter when Sophie left us to join her sister⁸ in Ireland.
     When I first went to The Home, I took music lessons, and afterwards, leaving off the music, I went with Birdie Ord to a French lady for lessons. Soon after I began to teach Mildred, I was one evening at the Leslie's, who were then living in their pretty house on Murray Street⁹, and Louie, the youngest daughter, who was about my age, begged me to come and take French lessons with her at Mrs. Neville's school¹⁰ on John Street. Sophie was quite willing, but the difficulty was the lessons were from one to two twice a week, just when I should be at Cousin Harriet's to lunch. However, my grandmother insisted I should go, and used to have a nice little lunch ready for me when I had finished my lesson. I enjoyed these lessons immensely and learned a great deal of French that winter, spending long mornings by the drawing room fire, poring over grammar or dictionary. Sometimes I spent an evening at the Leslie's and Louie and I studied together.
     My back still continued to trouble me very much, and our old friend and doctor, Dr. Adams, recommended a course in electricity. It was to cost $30.00 and my funds were small, but a music pupil turning up in the form of Mabel Cartwright¹¹, I managed to save the $30.00 and had the treatments, which patched me up for a time. Dr. Adams and old Dr. Hall (father of the child specialist) were then the only homeopaths in the city. Dr. Adams and I were great friends. He taught me a little phrenology and used to say if I had been a boy he would have put me through for a doctor, as he had no son. How I longed to have been a boy and been able to study medicine. I was already dabbling in it, and made one or two quite good cures that winter. Cousin Harriet had a young friend staying with her, Lottie Barker. She was in very poor health, and many an evening she asked me to come over and stay with her while she devoted herself to her father and mother.
     We had a succession of visitors at the Home that winter; Mrs. Cayley's two nieces, Bessie and Alice Boulton¹², and a Miss Allen from Haymarket, also my cousin Emily Wilgress, daughter of my father's sister¹³, who had died some years before. Sophie had not been well for some time, and after Christmas it was decided that she should join her sister in Ireland. I missed her terribly; we had been like sisters for so long sharing not only one room, but having our thoughts and interests so much in common. It was the evening before she left that she said to me: "Do go and see Alice Miller; I am sure she will be a help to you," and then rather reluctantly she added, "do not let her lead you astray, for I do not think she believes in eternal punishment." I did not go at once, but at last one day I felt as if I must have some help; life's problems were too many for me. The perpetual question of right and wrong seemed to wear my very life out. If I read a book and enjoyed it (a secular book), I tormented myself as to whether it was displeasing to the Lord. If I indulged in a game of croquet at the Robinson's¹⁴ or Leslie's I went through the same torture. Then I left off playing games or reading light literature, but I still felt that the desire to do it was as bad as the action. So I went over to Carlton Street one day, carrying a book Sophie had left for Miss Miller, but really wondering if she would give me any light. I was not one who could talk of my feelings, but somehow it was not long before dear Alice had found out all my troubles. She was a skillful physician. She did not speak of this or that being right or wrong, but she spoke of the love of the Father, of His joy over His children, of His desires for them. She had known a great deal of trouble. The most capable one in the family, she had done much to support a widowed mother and deformed sister, when she injured her own back and was for seven years a complete invalid unable to walk a step. During this time she carried on a school with often thirty children. She also had a little orphan nephew and niece to bring up. When I first knew her she was gradually recovering, and could walk about a little. She supported the family largely by fancy work and also had the care of two or three children, so she was never idle, but I was always welcome and many an hour I spent with her, learning lessons which were to benefit me all my life. I remember one conversation in particular. We had spoken of meekness, and she said she always prayed to be meek. "But," I said, "I could not do that truthfully, as I do not wish to be meek." "Well," she said, "do you not think the Lord was meek?" I said, "no doubt, but I do not think meekness a desirable thing." "And yet," she said, "you think it right to be meek." "Yes," I admitted, "I have no doubt it would be right." "Well," she suggested, "how would it do to pray that you may wish to be meek?" I agreed to that and prayed that prayer for a long time, until almost unconsciously it changed to a cry to be made meek. "Wisdom, courage and meekness," those were the three things I prayed for for years.
     Another point she pressed upon me was the wonderful fact that we may "know Christ". She certainly knew Him in a wonderful way. Her prayers were a tremendous help and uplifting to me. I never felt the same unhappiness again; life took an entirely new character to me. I was much helped too by some of Miss Havergal's¹⁵ books. Also I read and reread Mr. Turpin's pamphlets-"The Family of God" especially. Certain books suit certain stages in one's Christian life, and it is a mistake to think that a book which is helpful to you will certainly help someone else. I read "Notes on Leviticus" by C. H. MacIntosh¹⁶ too at this time, with intense enjoyment.
     Another thing which made a deep impression on me was a visit from Gerald Scott at "The Home". He had been a bright, happy Christian, preaching very acceptably and delighting in the things of the Lord. Little by little he was drawn away, until everything was given up, and when I met him for the first time since 1872 he had become a thorough man of the world. He had dissolved partnership with Claude and Beverley Cayley¹⁷ and intended to study medicine. For this purpose he came to Toronto, to take an examination, and stayed at my mother's house. But he was taken seriously ill and came to recuperate to the Cayley's. Bessie Boulton and some other girl were staying with us also, and I looked on at them all with astonishment mixed with the deepest distress; that anyone could have changed as he had done, given up the things of God for all this foolish, idle nonsense. Mrs. Cartwright was as distressed as I was, and we prayed continuously. I do not know whether he suspected the state of my feelings, but Bessie told me that he asked why I was so silent-said he had never met such a silent girl. But I do not think he was happy. One Sunday evening I stayed with him while the others went to church, and he begged me to play over the old hymns for him. I think it was the next day Cousin Harriet gave me a little note to hand to him. She told me all she put in it was, "I will arise and go to my father". This I believe was the beginning of the restoration. His father came for him and took him home and later they went to England, where he died very happily, fully restored to the joy of the Lord.
     Looking back at those days I must not forget the meetings for young people at mother's house. Sometimes Mr. Grant took them and sometimes Mr. Cartwright. The young people were encouraged to talk freely and express their difficulties, and I think they were very profitable. But we did not spend all our spare time on meetings. We often had picnics and Fred¹⁸ (later Sir Fred Robinson), who had disposed of his old yacht "The Wanderer" and got a small sail boat, was always glad to take us for a trip. There was a lady called Mrs. Jones, the widow of a Dr. Jones, who had two sons, and a young man who lived with them, Eddie Checkley¹⁹. These boys were fond of boating and their mother often came with us. I well remember one picnic. I think Birdie Ord was possibly there-I know George Jones and Eddie and Fred and Mrs. Jones²⁰ were. We had gone along the lake in an easterly direction past what they now call Fisherman's Island. We stopped for dinner, landed and spread our table in a little wood. Presently a rowing boat stopped and a young man and a girl got out. They could not see us and we paid little attention at first to them, but presently we judged he was proposing to her. He at last went on his knees to her, but she seemed to remain obdurate. We felt we were spies, but on the other hand it would be more embarrassing to appear suddenly. After a short time they went away and then the boys danced all round the place and made a grave and covered it with flowers. We were all young and foolish then.
     The Toronto Bay was a fine place for boating, before it became crowded with steamers and motor boats, and we often went rowing on it in the evenings. The Island, then a dreary tract of sand, with neither shade nor grass nor sidewalks, was not an inviting place, though mothers often took their children there to play in the sand. It was just about this time that Mr. Cayley suggested the idea of building cottages on the lake front of the Island. He built one, a little like a Noah's ark in appearance, and his friend Mr. Todd built another. I believe these were the first cottages.
     Another improvement in the city was double tracking Yonge Street for the cars and putting a line on Sherbourne Street. Everything was very disorganized while this was going on and we rode in omnibuses. In the winter the cars used to be put on sleighs, but there was no way of warming them and the driver was exposed to rain or snow. A dear old brother was a driver for many years.
     One day during the spring of 1878 I was visiting my mother and sister, who was still an invalid, and to my astonishment she told me that she had proposed to old Mrs. Reid of Bowmanville that I should go as governess to her six grandchildren. But I exclaimed: "I have never had any education; I could not do it". "Oh yes," said Dora, "you are quite able; you know a good deal of both French and music, and they are not advanced students." After discussing it for a long time I said I would write to Mrs. Reid and tell her that I did not feel I was really fit for the position, but that if she liked I would come to Bowmanville for a day or two and we could discuss it. She willingly agreed to this plan and sent me the fare. She was going to England with her daughter very soon and wanted the children to begin their lessons before she returned.
     So one Friday afternoon I took the 4 p.m. train as directed, and arrived in Bowmanville about 7 p.m. I had to take the rumbling old bus which met the trains, and was soon put down at Mrs. Reid's door. It was a very pleasant house to stay in, large and orderly and yet very homey. In the sitting room on one side of the front door was a large stove or grate, or something between the two, which nearly always had a wood fire in it, and there dear old Mrs. Reid sat most of her time, bending over her clean white knitting. She was very blind and knitting was the only work she could do. Her daughter was, I think, a perfect housekeeper, and woe betide the speck of dust or spot of rust which came under her eye. The servants were models and many a young girl was trained in that home for useful after life. All round the house was a verandah, and you walked down steps into a pretty garden, Annie Reid's delight, full of lilies and roses, Canterbury bells and many other old-fashioned flowers. Beyond the flower garden was an extensive vegetable garden and innumerable berry bushes, and then came the large orchard and paddock.
    I learned to know and love it all so well in many after visits that it is hard to say just what happened on that first one. I know on the day following my arrival we went for a picnic, the then governess accompanying us. She was no other than Mary Harvey, Sarah Benett's cousin, who had been teaching the Robinsons when we returned to Canada. She managed to corner me and tried hard to find out why she was dismissed. It was not altogether a pleasant expedition. Sunday passed peacefully and on Monday I returned to Toronto, having arranged to be at my post on August 31st. and to receive the generous salary of £40 a year.
¹The Hon. William Cayley's house at 142 Beverley St. (York & Toronto City Directories) http://digit.tpl.toronto.on.ca:8000/index.html 1877, p. 0223
² William & Mary (Minnie Cayley) Glascott & family
³ Harriet (Cayley) Cartwright
⁴ possibly Marion & Wolfrid Boulton (twins born 19 October 1870, children of Henry John & Charlotte (Rudyerd) Boulton.
⁵ James Strachan Cartwright
⁶ Jane Isabel (Easton) Cayley
⁷ Emma Robinson (Boulton) Cayley wife of The Hon. William Cayley
⁸ Mary (Minnie Cayley) Glascott
⁹ 28 Murray St. http://digit.tpl.toronto.on.ca:8000/index.html 1877, p. 0124
¹⁰ Mrs. Bessie Neville, ladies' school, 186 John St.(York & Toronto City Directories) http://digit.tpl.toronto.on ca:8000/index.html 1877, p. 0330
¹¹  Daughter of John Robinson & Emily (Boulton) Cartwright, Jr.
¹²  possibly the daughters of D'Arcy Edward Boulton, St. & Emily (Heath) Boulton.
¹³  Caroline (Boulton) Wilgress
¹⁴  Sir James Lukin & Lady Elizabeth Robinson living at North side of Selby between Huntley & Sherbourne St. in 1877.
http://digit.tpl.toronto.on ca:8000/index.html 1877, p. 0124
¹⁵  Frances Ridley Havergal: devotional writer, poetess and hymn writer (1836-1879)
¹⁶  Charles Henry Mackintosh (www.kirjasilta.net/macintosh)
¹⁷  probably Claude Thornton Cayley, son of John & Clara Louisa (Boulton) Cayley, & Beverley Boulton Cayley, son of The Hon. William & Emma (Boulton) Cayley.
¹⁸  Son of Sir James Lukin & Lady Elizabeth Robinson
¹⁹  probably Edwin J. Checkley. (1881 Canada Census -www.mirror.org/groups/genealogy/census.html)
²⁰  Georgina Jones (1881 Canada Census - www.mirror.org/groups/genealogy/census.html)
Click here for next chapter
Click to return to table of contents